U.S. Department of Defense awards Iridium five-year $76m contract

Iridium Communications Inc. has been awarded a five-year, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract from the Defense Information Systems Agency on behalf of the United States Air Force Space Command (AFSpC) with potential revenues up to $76m.  Known as the Gateway Evolution Contract (GEC), this contract enables ongoing innovation and critical enhancements for the U.S. Government’s dedicated Iridium gateway.  It will enable adoption of the latest technology upgrades, both hardware and software, necessary to address emerging warfighter requirements and to ensure continued operations with the latest state-of-the-art satcom-based capabilities.

GEC is one of a trio of Iridium government gateway related contracts, which also includes the Gateway Maintenance and Support Service contract (GMSS), which is responsible for ensuring day-to-day peak operational performance of the facility, and the Enhanced Mobile Satellite Services Airtime Contract (EMSS), which provides unlimited voice, text and data services to the Department of Defense (DoD) and associated federal government partners through the government gateway.  The previous iteration of the GEC was known as the Gateway Modernization Efforts contract (GME) and enabled the U.S. Government to make the investments necessary to take full of advantage of Iridium’s now recently completed satellite constellation upgrade campaign, known as Iridium® NEXT.

“With the completion of Iridium NEXT, new services and capabilities are constantly being designed and developed by Iridium and our ecosystem of partners,” said Scott Scheimreif, executive vice president, government programmes, Iridium.

“The GEC allows the U.S. Government to upgrade their gateway as they see fit, in order to take advantage of these new capabilities, including those yet to be invented. It is yet another example of a truly successful public/private partnership between Iridium and the Department of Defense as we collectively explore new ways to take advantage of our unique low-earth-orbiting satellite network.”